I attended an exposition’s “vernissage” (literally, the “varnishing”—what we would call the opening), and became smitten with the show and its fine-looking catalog. Obsession activated! Hit hard, and a post card just wouldn’t do. Let me tell you, during the late summer days in Paris, there is nothing sweeter than curling up with an art book in a park just before l’heure bleue.

But, how to score an affordable art catalogue? Take my hand, here’s how this fool falls in love.

Celebrating the new bike lanes on the right bank in Paris, let’s take a sentimental journey! Pop open a Coke, crank up Claude Debussy’s “Petite Suite,” and prepare for some bumpy late 19th century time travel along avenue Foch. This centuries-old promenading stretch is my favorite spot for gazing up at the Arc de Triomphe. Each time I tumble flat.

Pump it up

Don’t forget les bicyclettes. Ladies, this includes you! By the 1890s, thanks to the introduction of the Starley Rover Safety Bicycle and its handsome pneumatic tires, “all Paris was a-wheel,” and women were not only pedal pushing in public but also “unblushingly” flaunting menswear or something “alarmingly” like it. Oh, la la.